WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
Everyone gained extremely valuable skills performing the slow tempi exercise. Most often, little thought is placed into the act of walking. But, I’m quite confident that while performing the slow tempi exercise, everyone immediately became aware that walking at a slow and steady tempo required intentional and focused thought.
The slow tempi exercise has prepared you to practice correctly. Proper practice requires patient, focused, “on-purpose,” confident thought.
While working together as a class, everyone learned how to move together as a group, with a mutual goal clearly in mind. Orchestras practice in order to perfect a solid and unified ensemble tempo. This results in successful performances that are of high Quality.
The word quality served as my word cue. Just as I waited for a signal to make my entrance, conductors utilize music cues to signal different instruments to make entrances during a musical composition. You will learn details about conductor’s instructions and musical cues later on.
For now, allow me to get back to why the word quality was selected as my word cue. The word quality was chosen, because it is related to the topic I am here to teach you. All tempi are approximate and composers add and combine terms when notating details about music’s tempo. These details help musicians to understand the mood, character, and musical expression intended by the composer.